Crosswork Cloud Network Insights - Advantage Tier

I have been working with Cisco Crosswork Network Insights  for around 10 years. Overall, I have been working with software in general for 11 years. I have been working on the private cloud as well as on-premises. I was part of the design and deployment of Cisco Crosswork Network Insights  both.

It was quite easy to implement. I do not see any challenge because it is automation. For automation, more than a cross-work of Cisco, it is an agentic automation tool where you can increase the visibility of the networks. You can capture the insight of real-time traffic. You can take advantage of planning, design, testing, and make some changes based on the insights which you get from the tool.

The workflow, the low-code automation workflow which it provides, and the visibility for the SDN  with the CNC Crosswork Network Controller is always an advantage. It can provide optimization for the segment routing versions V4, V6. Optimize the leadership top-related IP address SD-WAN controller. This is huge for any OpEx network.

The real-time analytics feature of Cisco is very good. Cisco does have similar products like Cisco Nexus Dashboard  Insights, NDI, but this is more of AI analytics. It is not just proactive; this is a predictive AI model. Typically, vendors in the market provide reactive and proactive operating models, but this one has a predictive AI model, predicting the future of your workflow, utilization, and service optimization.

The route monitoring capability is quite good. When it comes to visibility, it provides hardware, software instrumental visibility with telemetry and events. It also provides fault, service health, and network health insights, which compares favorably to other monolithic applications in the old version of traditional network operating systems.

There are a couple of things I would improve about Cisco Crosswork Network Insights, such as capital efficiency and better utilization of operating expenses, allowing for multi-vendor integration. Currently, Cisco Crosswork Network Insights is only integrable with Cisco, which is proprietary. Since this is an AI-driven tool, we would expect it to accommodate components from other vendors.

When it comes to pricing, Cisco provides discounts based on partnership levels, making it dependent on the customer. While not cheap, it is considered worth it as it offers predictive AI for telecom networks. Still, some financial benefits are gained from implementing the product.

Cisco technical support is good and they are responsive.

It was quite easy to implement. It can be done in hours and days, not much work. With respect to the deployment for Cisco Crosswork Network Insights, you just need one person to enable that.

There is still a financial benefit from implementing the product.

When it comes to pricing, Cisco does not have a standard pricing model. Cisco provides you discounts based on what level of partnership you have with Cisco. Some may get a better discount, and some may find it a bit expensive. This varies from customer to customer. It is not that cheap. Cisco is usually a bit costly, but it is worth it because it is a predictive AI for telecom networks. I rate this product a 7 out of 10.

I would like to share my opinion about Cisco, particularly Cisco Crosswork Network Insights , as we are implementing Cisco products for the infrastructure needs for the internet. If you connect the networks, you cannot do it without the switches and all, and Cisco switches do come in as an important piece of hardware where routers, switches, or wireless access points are needed. All of those are basically important to build the right infrastructure to even deploy any type of framework on top of it. Until you do not have the infrastructure in place with the right routers, switches, and wireless access points, Cisco is quite a credible product.

Initially, it was Novell. When Novell was there, then Novell moved out from the market, and Cisco took over. Then you had all the different people with CCNA and CCNP type of certifications coming in. Now it is pretty much a standard in the market.

The major benefits of using Cisco Crosswork Network Insights  are that it is a better product to plan and deploy the network. It is quite a comprehensive product that gives real-time visualization and lifecycle management. It reduces the operating expenses eventually, decreases the deployment time, and definitely creates interest for the staff and boosts their productivity.

End-to-end visibility is significant in Cisco Crosswork Network Insights for proactive network management, as right now, there are several tools available, and network management tools can help create that visibility very easily. Initially, we had to only look at the lights, and if the light was on, we would understand that the network point was working, but now it is all virtual points. You can connect anywhere and just reassign the users to another point if one point is not working, so the point of failure has now become much easier to manage through the network management tools. With those network tools, it is easier for the IT team to manage the entire setup.

From my perspective, there is some room for improvement in the product, as you have to check your competitors, such as what Juniper is doing and what HP is offering, and those things have to come in to stay and survive in the market. All the features that your competition is giving, such as faster service provisioning, reduced error, and enhanced network performance, should all be better than your competitors to survive in this game.

I have been working with Cisco, specifically Cisco Crosswork Network Insights, for maybe eight to ten years, but what is happening now is that people are gradually moving to newer products, such as Huawei and other vendors because they are equally producing good products right now, and sometimes they pitch in with a better price, which leads people to opt for that newer product and new technology.

I would give the rating for support of Cisco the same, as we normally are not having too many issues where we have to revert back to the vendor. It is more of a hardware type of thing where if something is not working, we just get a replacement or a quick fix because it is hardware. It does not require too much analysis; if something is not working, it needs to be replaced, which makes it faster and easier, and normally, it is a good tool to manage the traffic and the network, so it is quite a comprehensive product.

For the implementation of Cisco Crosswork Network Insights, we have different levels of people. We normally have a junior and a senior role, with both of them attending the implementation, so normally, when it comes to racking and stacking or fixing of those items, the junior person is working, and when it comes to configuration, the senior person takes over. They are also supported by the OEM.

If I were to give a rating for Cisco Crosswork Network Insights from one to ten, I can give them nine out of ten, considering Cisco's ROI, as it is quite a comprehensive product with very few errors and enhanced network performance, so basically, all of those points collate together.

The deployment of Cisco Crosswork Network Insights is only challenged by having the right design, basically. If your design is okay and the design is properly done, then you do not face those many problems because Cisco is an elegant product. The only thing is if your infrastructure design is covering the needs of the customer, then the rollout should be very fast. It takes three to four days to implement the different types of firewalls, switches, network, and wireless access points, and that is it. Our engineers do not exactly know, but normally whenever our teams go to implement, they have a back-to-back support call with the OEM, so they are on the line to guide them. Sometimes when they are migrating from an older environment to a new one, that is more important because you plug in the right cables in the right points, and that is it. If you cannot do it properly, then you have messed up the entire environment.

We do support real-time analytics features with Cisco Crosswork Network Insights as an implementation partner if a customer is using it or if any of our customers is going with some real-time analytics, but in case they are doing it on their own, we are aware that they have taken some product, but maybe they have implemented it themselves.

I would give Cisco Crosswork Network Insights a rating of nine out of ten.

I use Cisco Crosswork Network Insights  on-premise because I have been using Cisco for a long time, and at that time, it was about on-premise, not cloud.

The best features or advantages of Cisco Crosswork Network Insights  are that Cisco is very popular in Vietnam, and they perform very well in education, so many people and engineers know very clearly about Cisco, especially if you compare it to another vendor. Students are educated by Cisco, and then when they become workers, engineers will suggest buying a Cisco device.

From my perspective, what could be improved about Cisco Crosswork Network Insights is that it has been a long time since I have used Cisco, but that does not mean that I am retired. Before when I was an engineer, that was about 20 to 30 years ago.

For now, artificial intelligence is the only area that could be improved.

I cannot remember exactly how many years I have been using Cisco Crosswork Network Insights, but it is at least 10 years.

The deployment time for Cisco Crosswork Network Insights depends on the system, meaning it is about the volume or the size of the system, and that is not significant for the timeframe.

I do not think that there were any challenges to install or deploy the product because Cisco performs very well in education every time.

Sometimes I join directly in the deployment of Cisco Crosswork Network Insights, but almost all the time, my team does this.

In the past, I had a team of about nearly 30 people working with Cisco Crosswork Network Insights.

Cisco is a networking company, which means they sell networking devices, but I do not know if artificial intelligence should be used in the network.

Currently, I have no idea if I actually use Real-Time Analytics with Cisco Crosswork Network Insights.

For monitoring capabilities of Cisco Crosswork Network Insights, the monitoring is for Cisco only, from my knowledge. In the past, we did not use much of Cisco monitoring system; we used another third party, such as SolarWinds.

I did not use Real-Time Insights with Cisco Crosswork Network Insights, not yet, and I do not know about that.

My overall rating for this product is 6.

I wanted to know if we are still working with products from Cisco, and we are still working with Cisco, but I'm not working at the same company anymore, so I'm no longer the point of contact.

What interests me is whether I personally use Cisco, and I do.

I believe I am familiar with Cisco Crosswork Network Insights .

We do use real-time analytics with Cisco Crosswork Network Insights , and from what I remember, we were using this.

I remembered that the real-time analytics helped us detect anomalies, and we had some questions about what we were seeing there.

The advanced visualization tools were really nicely done.

Overall, I do see some benefit from using Cisco Crosswork Network Insights.

Something that could be better is the third-party integration for some things, but I think it was already on the way for this, although it was not ready by that time.

I cannot assess the root monitoring capability in this solution because I was not involved with that part.

We had some complexities because we had a complex network with some solutions that were already in place, and we were looking to integrate everything and also to pass some functionality from one solution to the other at a later time.

The reason I did not give a nine or ten for Cisco Crosswork Network Insights is integration and price, as that is what prevents me from giving the maximum points.

I think there is room for improvement in pricing.

I have been using this solution for approximately one year.

I am satisfied with the technical support of Cisco. We used mostly local support, and they were very helpful. I'm thinking they also had interactions with Cisco main support for some issues, but our point of contact was them, so they took care of it.

This solution was chosen because we already had a lot of Cisco products, and I cannot compare it to other solutions.

I was not involved with the deployment. It was done by a different team, and we have a dedicated team for that.

I don't remember the exact time required for deployment, but I think it took approximately two weeks.

Five people were needed for deployment. Three of them were engineers, and two were in the networking team. They helped with the deployment, and we did not do it by ourselves.

In terms of finance, I cannot fully answer. I think it was a bit expensive.

In the end, it was decided that we would go for it. Pricing wasn't the decisive factor; it was functionality.

We are working with Cisco mostly, but we are also working with other vendors. My overall rating for this product is 8 out of 10.

My main use case for Cisco Crosswork Network Insights  is that it provides real-time network monitoring, BGP and internet route monitoring, and predictive analysis.

For real-time network monitoring with Cisco Crosswork Network Insights , we can see which link is getting overloaded, which router is unstable, and where the traffic is flowing, as well as where the latency and packet loss are happening. These are the main use cases when we look at real-time network monitoring. Related to predictive analysis, it can predict which link has been running at very high utilizations over the last few days or over the last few retention periods.

The automation features of Cisco Crosswork Network Insights allow us to set smart alerts using high latency, packet drops, BGP flaps, router changes, and bandwidth spikes, as well as connections between different routers. These are the primary use cases where we can integrate with the automation tool to trigger actions automatically.

Moreover, when we get the RCA, we can create any SOPs using that RCA so that whenever we encounter the same types of issues, we are well-prepared with our pre-checks, preventing those issues from arising. This is how it impacts downtimes and enables faster troubleshooting.

Cisco Crosswork Network Insights provides very good visualization dashboards, and it is also very effective in alerting and automations.

The best features Cisco Crosswork Network Insights offers include its effectiveness in alerting and automations, visualization dashboards, and its suitability for banking organizations, telecom providers, or any large enterprises that heavily work with networking and security needs.

Cisco Crosswork Network Insights has positively impacted my organization by reducing downtime when any problems are detected early before impacting users, allowing us to take action. It also facilitates faster troubleshooting, enabling network engineers to identify the root cause quickly and carry out any RCA without manually checking the logs at every point. Additionally, it can detect suspicious routing behavior and BGP hijacking attempts, thereby improving the security of our organizations.

Cisco Crosswork Network Insights has helped with time efficiency, as it leads to low downtimes, and the automations and alerting features help reduce the manpower needed in organizations.

Cisco Crosswork Network Insights can improve in its setup complexity, as it has a very complex setup that requires skilled network engineers for deployment and tuning. Additionally, the licensing and deployment costs are quite high, and if these aspects could be better managed on the Cisco end, it would be beneficial.

Improvements are also needed in the official documentation, particularly with more insightful diagrams and explanations.

I have been using Cisco Crosswork Network Insights for the last two to three years.

Cisco Crosswork Network Insights is stable.

In terms of scalability, Cisco Crosswork Network Insights performs very well in both UAT and production. The documentation is well-maintained, and updates are released in a timely manner, making it stable. We have been using it for the last few years and have not faced any challenges related to production releases.

Customer support for Cisco Crosswork Network Insights is very good. Whenever we need assistance, they engage via email and also connect through online calls. They are also very responsive during physical meetings, especially when RCA is required.

Regarding my experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Cisco Crosswork Network Insights, those aspects are handled by the accountant and TAM teams, so I am not too aware of those details. However, I find the deployment to be somewhat GUI-based or routing-based, and overall, it is a very good experience.

Cisco Crosswork Network Insights performs best within the Cisco ecosystem. When the infrastructure is very Cisco-based, it can deliver optimal performance. However, it is quite expensive in terms of licensing and deployment costs, which are some of its weak points. I have given this product a rating of 8.

If you are working in banking, large enterprises, or data centers, and you seek a solution that helps reduce downtime, particularly in complex networks, I advise considering Cisco Crosswork Network Insights for faster troubleshooting.